Grim Awakening is the first Tier 2 raid of Storm Legion and it’s a Fire raid. For the first time in Telara’s recorded history, the new tier will start with a 10 man raid.

This means you will need 500 hit and/or 500 toughness for Grim Awakening. If you have all the tier one pieces of gear or just gear from Frozen Tempest or Endless Eclipse you will meet the requirements without having to use runes.

The Grim Awakening bosses are going to drop Frozen Eclipse Stones and tier 2 items. Clearing this raid a few times before the tier 2 20 man raids comes out will give you a head start.

Where is the Grim Awakening entrance ?

All credit goes to Skarrj for guessing the entrance location on the first try ! The entrance to Grim Awakening is in Kingsward, at 4542, 8616. Just take the porticulum to The Academy and you’re going to see it. Don’t forget to use Quantum Sight !

Trash (a.k.a. non boss encounters)

There are a lot of non boss encounters inside Grim Awakening. And to make matters worse, the mobs have mechanics so it’s not going to be just an AOE fest.

Before the first and the second boss you will have to clear packs of Reawakened Harbingers, Defilers, Tempests and Tacticians.

The Reawakened Harbingers place a dot on a random raid member that inflicts damage if the target stands still. It’s quite painful, so you want to strafe or jump when you get the dot.

The Reawakened Defilers place stacks of Foul Growth on other mobs. They will have to be purged or they will heal to full.

The Reawakened Tempests and Tacticians do AOE damage, frontal cone AOEs and place bubbles on the raid.

Before the third and the fourth boss there are different trash packs. As you go up the maze you will encounter packs made out of Wardens of Salvarola, Fallen Awakened, Corrupted Blademasters and Corrupted Sadists.

The Wardens of Salvarola do a fast cast (1.5 seconds) which has to be interrupted or it AOEs the entire raid. They also stack a debuff on the raid. If the debuff reaches 30 stacks the person dies. You can LoS the mobs to reset the stacks, but the idea is to burn them down before the stacks reach 30.

The Fallen Awakened also has a cast that can be interrupted. If it goes through it will summon a bunch of imps. If you see a blue bar, hit the interrupt button.

The Corrupted Blademasters have a nasty cleave so they have to be faced away from the raid. I don’t remember the Corrupted Sadists doing anything special.

Bosses

There are 4 bosses inside Grim Awakening and a lot of trash. Although each 10 man had some sort of fun mini event (and bonus marks !) there isn’t one in GA. But to compensate for that, the bosses are fun !

Prince Kaliban

Once you get pass the trash you will face Prince Kaliban, the same one you’ve defeated in Empyrean Core. This is a really fun encounter, although it can go every wrong very fast. I love the new mechanic this boss introduces to the game and I hope I will see it again in a 20 man version.

Kyzan

After some more annoying trash you will reach Kyzan, the awesome Bahmi. Kyzan is a very hectic boss, a lot of movement, dodging, purging, running around. It’s a fight that will keep you on your toes for the entire duration. Another fun boss in my opinion, I mean, what can be better then having 10 people locked inside a small room with an angry Bahmi ?

Salvarola

If you defeated Prince Kaliban and Kyzan and you didn’t got lost in the maze means you reached the third boss in Grim Awakening, Salvarola. This is where the fun is supposed to stop and the real deal supposed to start.

Salvarola is a gear check boss. Your tanks are going to get crushed, your DPS is going to be tested and your healers will have to perform under pressure.

Ultane

The last boss in Grim Awakening is Ultane. This encounter has epic potential. He is one of the most intense bosses I’ve seen in Rift so far. All I can say is, whoever thought the waves on Ituziel or Akylios were hard, go have a try on Ultane. Don’t forget to bring your surfboard.

This encounter has it all. AoE damage, tank damage, focused damage on a player that requires cooldowns, waves, bubbles, ground aoe, transition phases and the cherry on the cake, the last phase which will probably end up being a very chaotic 35%.